Hazel O'Connor & The Subterraneans

When Hazel got together with Coventry home boys The Subterraneans, all plans were reorganised
to accommodate the demand from her astonishing and ever-growing fan-base to do more live gigs together.

"Melding Hazel's superb vocals with soaring sax, guitars, bass and drums … the full band sound.
You know this must be something VERY special... And you'd be right"

The Subterraneans have been Hazel's backing band since 2004.

In 2010, to celebrate BREAKING GLASS 30th
Anniversary, an excellent new album
including all the re-worked songs of Breaking
Glass movie plus 2 bonus tracks:
"Reach" and The Subterraneans song
"(WORLD STOPS) Spinning Without You".

The Subterraneans formed in 1998 from two well renowned bands, Dangerfield and Baby on Board, both achieving critical acclaim after appearing on The Chris Evans shows, Glastonbury and Phoenix festivals in 1997 and touring with Roy Wood.

In 2004 Grammy award winning record producer Roger Lomas was approached by life-long friend Hazel O'Connor to help find a band to collaborate with her on a series of live one-off dates and various music festivals spread throughout 2004.

Roger immediately thought of the Subterraneans as his first choice and suggested that Hazel should go and see the band. Hazel was impressed with what she heard and saw, so invited the band to join forces with her on her forthcoming shows.

The Subterraneans became Hazels backing band in 2004, recording a live DVD of her greatest hits and touring with her around the U.K which was highlighted by a stunning performance at Glastonbury 2004.

The band also played that year at the famous punk festival "Wasted" along with such acts as Stiff Little Fingers, The Damned, and Sham 69 with Kev being asked to join Edd Tudorpole on stage to play "Swords of a thousand men".

At the beginning of 2005 the Subterraneans appeared with Hazel on ITV's "Hit me baby one more time". Just before the release of the DVD, Hazel also released a new album "Hidden Heart" featuring members of the Subterraneans and produced by Martin Rushent (Stranglers, Human League).

Throughout 2005 the lads toured with Hazel, now opening the shows with their own material. The release of the double album "Fighting Back" in August 2005 saw the Subterraneans reaching even more audiences around the U.K.

In 2007 more festivals followed. They included "Retrofest" where The Subterraneans appeared with Hazel. Other acts on the bill were Human League, Kim Wilde, Curiosity Killed The Cat, The Beat, Belinda Carlisle, and Nick Heyward to mention but a few.

2008 saw The Subterraneans concentrating on their own material in the studio but still continued gigging and performed at a very special venue La Loco in Paris which was filmed by Luc Besson.

The highlight of 2009 was appearing on stage at the N.E.C along side some great artists at the "Rock with Laughter" concert. 2009 also saw the release of their acclaimed live album "Live at the Jam House".

Late 2009, The Subterraneans built their own studio with which Hazel fell in love. She started to spend a lot of time there and wrote the now famous song "Re-Joyce". Hazel and The Subterraneans decided to re-record all the "Breaking Glass" songs in a new album. The new studio, baptised "Womb Studios", was the where all the demos were created, and where Mark and Kev put together all the music for "Re-Joyce"

Early 2010, Hazel and The Subterraneans recorded "Breaking Glass Now" at Ro-Lo Studios. They performed the whole album live for the very first time at one of the Midlands most famous venues, the Leamington Assembly. For this concert and the following tour they were joined by Clare Hirst on saxophone.

The Subterraneans and Hazel continued to tour "Breaking Glass Now" during the whole of 2010 and appeared at many festivals including the famous "Godiva" festival in their home town of Coventry. During these events Hazel drummed up support from artists such as Toyah Willcox, Pauline Black, Carol Decker, Neville Staple, Ranking Roger, and Kid Creole, as well as Clannads Moya Brennan, and old friends Cormac and Eamonn de Barra to join in on the "Re-Joyce" single. They all agreed to come on board and in a few days at Ro-Lo Studios, all artists put down their vocals to the backing track Mark and Kev had created.

Once the single was completed, for the second time in one year, The Subterraneans were back to the Leamington Assembly for the launch of the single. All the artists performed several of their own hits and were all backed by The Subterraneans. The grand finale was when all the artists sang the single together live on stage for the very first time and were accompanied again by The Subterraneans. The whole concert was filmed.

The band have now made plans to go into the studio again and record an album featuring some of the audience favourites played on tour.

Look out for the Subterraneans live show, its big and lively with amazing production from Roger Lomas. There are some big events lined up for 2011, including an extra and final date of "Breaking Glass Now" at London's Leicester Square Theatre in February.